Covington officials want to know if MainStrasse Village business owners and residents are interested in periodically closing down streets to make a temporary pedestrian mall where people can mill around, eat, drink and enjoy music outside.

The city has scheduled a public meeting on the matter for Thursday at 7 p.m. at 501 Main St.

This is a good idea for special events. Savannah allows bar patrons to bring their drinks outside in designated areas, and sometimes there is a band or other entertainment out on the street. But this is also something that has to be done carefully, because it could have the potential to turn into a mini mardi gras.

City officials are thinking about it. They are considering closing parts of Main and 6th streets to traffic in the MainStrasse entertainment area to allow outdoor dining during warm-weather weekend nights.

Some neighbors love the idea. Others are critical.

Under the proposal, Main Street would be closed from 7th Street to about halfway between 5th and 6th streets. Meanwhile, 6th Street would be shut between Main and Bakewell streets, said MainStrasse Village Association Executive Director Jerry Bamberger, who noted he can't vote on the proposal as a member of Covington's city commission.

COVINGTON - When John Simon moved to MainStrasse from Cincinnati a few months ago, he knew what he was getting into.

"We knew in advance that it was an entertainment district before we moved down here. We knew there were going to be some sacrifices," he said.

He and his wife had owned Gothic Edge, a new age/medieval boutique, for nearly three years before relocating the store to Sixth and Main and moving in above it. As both business owner and resident, Simon is in the middle of the battle dividing his neighborhood.

"We were a little apprehensive about moving here, and moving to a 'bar district,'" he said. "But, we went ahead with it, and we're enjoying it. By day, it's a peaceful village. By night it's the wild party spot."

That "wild party spot" is what has some residents and business owners up in arms about a proposal to close some MainStrasse streets periodically in the hopes of drawing more people - and their money - to the district.

COVINGTON - A local bar owner is proposing a small-batch brewery and an Italian restaurant in MainStrasse, but nearby residents worry that his plans will further a transition of their neighborhood into a haven for drinking.

They also worry about a city proposal to close parts of Main and Sixth streets monthly so people can dine and drink outside on warm nights.

"I don't want to live in party central," said Short Pershing Avenue resident Sandy Arnold, who opposes more bars. She says she has watched several proposed MainStrasse "restaurants" over the years become bars that serve food.

"These people that are coming in to party don't live here. They don't care about the future of the neighborhood, and I do," Arnold said about bar patrons. "I want to see my neighborhood flourish 10 years from now, and I don't think continuing to add bars to our neighborhood is going to help that happen."

Depending on whom you talk to, last month's MainStrasse Village Association board election in Covington was either a slick coup d'etat by neighborhood bar owners or a pure example of democracy in action.

The board added two bar owners, re-elected a third and a shop owner supportive of them.

Those four - and two other bar owners and their allies on the board - will give the tavern-restaurant faction a clear-cut majority on the 15-member board, said MainStrasse insiders.

The shift in power could have an impact on two potentially divisive proposals still drifting through the neighborhood, where the rift between bar owners and residents has been simmering since the March 2000 Mardi Gras. That year, unseasonably warm weather attracted about 60,000 people, who overwhelmed security and the facilities, leaving behind damaged property and a monumental clean-up job.

COVINGTON - A power struggle in Covington's MainStrasse Village has residents and business owners pointing fingers.

The fight for control of the nonprofit MainStrasse Village Association hinges on fine points of procedure, but it raises questions about the future of one of Northern Kentucky's premier tourist attractions and entertainment districts.

Four of the association's 15 board members were replaced at a Nov. 10 election, and a critic of the way voting was handled says it amounts to an attempted takeover by bar owners who are likely to push for expanded nightlife. One ousted board member calls the election "a well orchestrated coup."

COVINGTON - Zazou Grill and Pub can add a bar on its patio and keep its outdoor area open 90 minutes later until 2:30 a.m., when its inside area has been closing, a city board decided Wednesday.

That 3-1 decision was an easing of restrictions the same panel, the Board of Adjustments, placed on the MainStrasse bar in March 2005.

Nine neighborhood residents testified against Zazou's request, which also sought permission to install outdoor speakers. Neighborhood sentiment was so strident against the speakers that Zazou owner Stephen Locke withdraw that request during the meeting.

^ That's what I was thinking. There are tons of young people just aching to move into a place like that. Surely you'll see the demographics change drastically, but Snyder seems to be insinuating that the future MainStrasse will be a ghost town. She's insane.

At issue is whether bars and restaurants should be permitted uses in the MainStrasse area as recommended in the city's proposed zoning ordinance. Currently, they are conditional uses, which requires proposals for new restaurants or taverns to go before the city's board of adjustments for public comment and a vote.

In e-mails Monday, MainStrasse residents urged anyone with concerns about the proposed change to speak up at tonight's City Commission meeting and address county planners at the July 6 Kenton County Planning Commission meeting.

It will take at least one more month for residents of MainStrasse to learn if the bars in their neighborhood will be serving more alcoholic beverages.

The Kenton County Planning Commission tabled a recommendation on a new Covington zoning ordinance Thursday. It would allow bars and restaurants to be permitted uses in the area, eliminating the chance for residents to offer input to the city's Board of Adjustments.

New restaurants or taverns now must go before the Board of Adjustments for public comment and a vote.

About 40 residents turned out for a public hearing Thursday to express concern because the recommendation could allow more establishments to serve alcoholic beverages at later hours, something residents say is already a problem in an area they contend is predominantly residential.

They also say they are a leery of a proposed microbrewery that could come to the area if the new zoning is approved by the City Commission.

COVINGTON – Some city commissioners are so disappointed with the MainStrasse Village Association they think it’s worth exploring whether Covington itself should take over festivals the organization has been running.

The issue was raised during Tuesday’s commission meeting when MainStrasse residents and business owners asked officials to consider preventing MSVA from operating festivals such as Oktoberfest, Mardi Gras and Maifest.

MainStrasse resident Danielle Eulitt, a former president of the MSVA, presented a petition with about 70 signatures, collected within 24 hours, asking Covington to “choose another entity besides (MSVA) to operate the city’s festivals held in MainStrasse Village.”